Science

A border collie in northern England chases after a flock of sheep to herd them. A new study finds that only about 9% of the variation in an individual dog's behavior can be explained by its breed.

Science

Your dog is a good boy, but that's not necessarily because of its breed

7:41pm April 28, 2022

by Becky Sullivan

A new study based on thousands of DNA sequences and owner surveys finds that less than 10% of a dog's behavior — like howling, herding or retrieving — can be explained by its breed.

Is sucking carbon from the air the key to stop climate change? Some scientists say so

5:27pm April 28, 2022

by Lauren Sommer

With the climate getting hotter, scientists are finding that cutting fossil fuels may not be enough. Carbon dioxide emissions may need to be vacuumed right out of the air.

Moderna says its vaccine appears to be about 51 percent effective for children ages 6 months to less than 2 years, and 37 percent effective for those ages 2 to less than 6 years.

Moderna asks FDA to authorize first COVID-19 vaccine for very young children

7:00am April 28, 2022

by Rob Stein

The company says a low-dose version of its vaccine triggers an immune response in children ages 6 months to less than 6 years equivalent to what has protected older children and adults.

Rapid tests are effective in detecting BA.2, but the high infectivity of the subvariant means it could jump from person to person before a positive result is detected.

Can we trust rapid COVID tests against BA.2? This is what the experts say

5:00am April 27, 2022

With the BA.2 subvariant of omicron pushing infection rates up, many are reaching for at-home rapid tests. Here's what experts say on how best to use them.

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New research finds that previous studies of mental illness using brain scans may be too small for the results to be reliable.

Brain scans may reveal a lot about mental illness, but not until studies get bigger

5:01am April 26, 2022

by Jon Hamilton

Scientists are using MRI scans to understand how mental illness shows up in the bran. But new research raises concerns that existing studies are not reliable because the sample sizes are too small.

Health care workers during a strike in Palo Alto, Calif., on Monday. About 5,000 nurses at Stanford and Packard Children's Hospital began a strike Monday over a fight for what they describe as fair contracts.

Thousands of nurses at Stanford hospitals are striking over wages and mental health

9:32pm April 25, 2022

by Jonathan Franklin

The labor union representing the nearly 5,000 striking nurses says 93% of staff voted to authorize the strike, which does not have an end date.

Brain scan studies need to get much bigger to offer insight into mental illness

5:06pm April 25, 2022

by Jon Hamilton

Researchers say most brain scan studies are too small to explain complex human traits like intelligence or mental health. Meaningful insights will require studies of thousands of brains, not dozens.

Science

MIT researchers confirm that it's hard to split the filling evenly in an Oreo

6:12am April 25, 2022

Twist apart an Oreo and the creme filling usually ends up mostly on one side. Researchers concluded there's no secret. The production process makes it almost impossible to split the filling evenly.

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Firearms were the leading cause of children under the age of 19 in 2020. Until then, motor vehicle accidents had spent the last 60 years as the leading cause of death for kids.

Firearms overtook auto accidents as the leading cause of death in children

4:58pm April 22, 2022

by Dustin Jones

The change occurred in 2020, researchers say. Overall firearm-related deaths increased 13.5% between 2019 and 2020, but such fatalities for those 1 to 19 years old jumped nearly 30%.

This Earth Day, one book presents global warming and climate justice as inseparable

9:31am April 22, 2022

by Barbara King

It's still an open question to what degree our planet will remain habitable in the coming years. Elizabeth Cripps offers an urgent message in What Climate Justice Means and Why We Should Care.